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Is There Such a Thing As a Sub-Router.? 1
- Thread starter webrabbit
- Start date
MikeHalloran
Technical User
I have encountered a similar arrangement at a rural motel, where some cabins were quite remote from the upstream router, so each had a local router that was linked to the upstream router only by wifi.
Access from the remote cabins worked a _lot_ better when they went to the trouble of stringing Cat5 cable for the backbone.
Note that everyone connected to the downstream router will be sharing the same virtual cable, which does not have the bandwidth of copper, so everyone connected to that router will be complaining, all the time. I did.
More urban motels commonly have multiple routers named JonesMotel1, JonesMotel2, etc. They could be connected as you show or by cable. The important thing is that only one of them is set up to host DHCP and NAT, or that both be restricted to allocate complementary portions of the local subnet.
More recently the advertised 'high speed wireless' is subcontracted to a third party, and the entire LargeQuirky (not their real name) chain is connected together as one huge subnet, with one cheap-ass router in some service provider's closet providing DHCP and NAT for thousands of motels nationwide. Modems, even at 1200 baud, are faster.
I think most generic routers can be configured to do what you want. Just be careful you coordinate or restrict their address allocation and such, so they're not both trying to do the exact same thing. I'd find a router that I trust >>>>>and for which I can comprehend the documentation<<<<<, and buy another just like it, rather than trying to learn two different routers. Change the default address of one before switching on the other, of course.
I've noticed another problem. Many, maybe all, of my suburban neighbors have wireless routers in their houses, and they are clearly interfering with each other. My smartphone suggests that virtually everyone is using a B/G router, so I am shopping for an N router, of which my smartphone detects none locally.
Access from the remote cabins worked a _lot_ better when they went to the trouble of stringing Cat5 cable for the backbone.
Note that everyone connected to the downstream router will be sharing the same virtual cable, which does not have the bandwidth of copper, so everyone connected to that router will be complaining, all the time. I did.
More urban motels commonly have multiple routers named JonesMotel1, JonesMotel2, etc. They could be connected as you show or by cable. The important thing is that only one of them is set up to host DHCP and NAT, or that both be restricted to allocate complementary portions of the local subnet.
More recently the advertised 'high speed wireless' is subcontracted to a third party, and the entire LargeQuirky (not their real name) chain is connected together as one huge subnet, with one cheap-ass router in some service provider's closet providing DHCP and NAT for thousands of motels nationwide. Modems, even at 1200 baud, are faster.
I think most generic routers can be configured to do what you want. Just be careful you coordinate or restrict their address allocation and such, so they're not both trying to do the exact same thing. I'd find a router that I trust >>>>>and for which I can comprehend the documentation<<<<<, and buy another just like it, rather than trying to learn two different routers. Change the default address of one before switching on the other, of course.
I've noticed another problem. Many, maybe all, of my suburban neighbors have wireless routers in their houses, and they are clearly interfering with each other. My smartphone suggests that virtually everyone is using a B/G router, so I am shopping for an N router, of which my smartphone detects none locally.
hairlessupportmonkey
IS-IT--Management
OK, You could do it that way, and I guess you are linking sites together?
This would possibly cost more but work better.
Rounter<--> WiFi Bridge --- Wifi Bridge <-->Network Switch
| | | | | |
PC PC PC PC PC PC
We use 5Ghz Engenius
the best way is to configure them in WDS mode rather than bridge mode, as its more reliable.
This way your network isn't broken into two separate networks and there will be no issues with double NAT.
ACSS - SME
General Geek
This would possibly cost more but work better.
Rounter<--> WiFi Bridge --- Wifi Bridge <-->Network Switch
| | | | | |
PC PC PC PC PC PC
We use 5Ghz Engenius
the best way is to configure them in WDS mode rather than bridge mode, as its more reliable.
This way your network isn't broken into two separate networks and there will be no issues with double NAT.
ACSS - SME
General Geek
-
1
- #4
Assuming that what you want your subrouter to do is extend your Wifi somewhere it cannot reach, the term you are looking for is an extender. "Wifi Range Extender"
As has been said many regular routers can do this just fine, and there are dedicated access points which simply extend the network, but have no dhcp or other routing capabilities.
Perhaps if you could explain a bit more what you are looking to accomplish we can be more specific.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
As has been said many regular routers can do this just fine, and there are dedicated access points which simply extend the network, but have no dhcp or other routing capabilities.
Perhaps if you could explain a bit more what you are looking to accomplish we can be more specific.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
Agree with the switch suggestion. Even if you use a router there physically it works as a switch if you don't use the wan connection.
I use the concept at home and with 3 customers using multiple routers. Puts the wireless sources closer to the users.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
I use the concept at home and with 3 customers using multiple routers. Puts the wireless sources closer to the users.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
mscallisto
Technical User
This is NOT the answer you are looking for but it's a fun antenna project
- Thread starter
- #7
OK, here is the detailed description of my problems:
I have a desktop PC with a wifi antenna.
1. Whenever I reboot the computer, I must manually restart the wifi connection. Before I can do this, I have to close the Flash Player request to get an update since that requires an internet connection and there is no internet connection until the wifi is started.
2. The wifi frequently drops out and then reconnects. When this happens, a baloon message pops up and grabs the focus, disrupting me from what I was doing.
3. While the wifi is down, I cannot print to my USB printer from the command line, as the command line printer interface only supports local (lpt: or com
printers or network printers. I thought perhaps that with a "subrouter" I would still have a network even though the wifi is down, but I see from the above posts that this is not possible as the networking function of the "subrouter" has to be turned off in order to avoid interfering with the main router.
I have the same problems with my laptop, except the frequency of drop-out is higher and of course without the network there is no printer available to it at all.
Please note that I did buy and attempt to install a "range extender". The tech support people wanted me to change the security protocol on the network, which is not an option for me.
Had the range extender worked, it probably would have solved problems 1) and 2).
Note also that I am aware that the "NET USE" command can assign a network printer to a "local" lpt: name, but it still is a network printer and depends on the network's beeing up.
I have a desktop PC with a wifi antenna.
1. Whenever I reboot the computer, I must manually restart the wifi connection. Before I can do this, I have to close the Flash Player request to get an update since that requires an internet connection and there is no internet connection until the wifi is started.
2. The wifi frequently drops out and then reconnects. When this happens, a baloon message pops up and grabs the focus, disrupting me from what I was doing.
3. While the wifi is down, I cannot print to my USB printer from the command line, as the command line printer interface only supports local (lpt: or com
printers or network printers. I thought perhaps that with a "subrouter" I would still have a network even though the wifi is down, but I see from the above posts that this is not possible as the networking function of the "subrouter" has to be turned off in order to avoid interfering with the main router.I have the same problems with my laptop, except the frequency of drop-out is higher and of course without the network there is no printer available to it at all.
Please note that I did buy and attempt to install a "range extender". The tech support people wanted me to change the security protocol on the network, which is not an option for me.
Had the range extender worked, it probably would have solved problems 1) and 2).
Note also that I am aware that the "NET USE" command can assign a network printer to a "local" lpt: name, but it still is a network printer and depends on the network's beeing up.
I think I understand now.
You want to grab a Wifi network connection and bring it down to to be wired.
Something like this should be what you want.
Its still an extender which will increase your Wifi's range, but also has ethernet ports to connect other devices to the Wifi network via ethernet cables.
So you can set it up to pick up your current Wifi network, and connect it to your PC via a physical ethernet cable.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
You want to grab a Wifi network connection and bring it down to to be wired.
Something like this should be what you want.
Its still an extender which will increase your Wifi's range, but also has ethernet ports to connect other devices to the Wifi network via ethernet cables.
So you can set it up to pick up your current Wifi network, and connect it to your PC via a physical ethernet cable.
----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Web & Tech
- Thread starter
- #9
I use one of these at home Worked well for the last year or so.
I've always found Tp-Link stuff to be rock solid and cheap as well.
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
MikeHalloran
Technical User
Flash has been a POS since Macromedia introduced it.
Adobe didn't make it less of a problem.
One thing you could do is restrict the address range that the router's DHCP assigns, and manually allocate the addresses outside that range, i.e., put the printer at a fixed IP. I have had to do this for my wireless printer at home because of a hoary old bug in 2wire routers.
Come to think of it, you could run your entire internal network with fixed IP addresses, making the local net independent of some external DHCP server.
Adobe didn't make it less of a problem.
One thing you could do is restrict the address range that the router's DHCP assigns, and manually allocate the addresses outside that range, i.e., put the printer at a fixed IP. I have had to do this for my wireless printer at home because of a hoary old bug in 2wire routers.
Come to think of it, you could run your entire internal network with fixed IP addresses, making the local net independent of some external DHCP server.
1. Whenever I reboot the computer, I must manually restart the wifi connection. Before I can do this, I have to close the Flash Player request to get an update since that requires an internet connection and there is no internet connection until the wifi is started."
Have you tried putting it in your startup files?
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Have you tried putting it in your startup files?
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
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